Johnson was a retailing star at Target before he came to Apple in 2000, and he's an even bigger star today, having designed what is arguably the world's most user-friendly chain of
retail stores. He shares Jobs' single-minded focus on the customer experience, and when he parts ways with Jobs -- the Genius Bar, where customers get hands-on troubleshooting, was a
Johnson idea that Jobs resisted -- he is often right. Most retailers focus on how you find the right item, he says, how you select it and how you get it out of the store. "We said
there's a bigger idea. Let's design it around the customer's life, not the moment when they're in the store." Apple's second-most charismatic public speaker, he is on several
outsiders' short list of possible successors.